This Inspiring Video Will Make You Rethink History

Have all great inventors have been men? Think again.

By
Liz Steelman

Do you know who Tabitha Babbitt is? How about Martha Coston or Mary Anderson? Well, neither did the elementary school girls featured in Microsoft's new commercial celebrating International Women’s Day. When asked which inventors they had learned about school, the girls responded with all-male answers: Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, and Nikola Tesla. When asked about female inventors, however, the girls weren’t able to name one.

There have, of course, been many great woman inventors before them—Babbitt who made the circular saw, Coston who invented signal flares, and Anderson who created windshield wipers, to name just a few examples.

By introducing girls to a long list of women who have changed the world, the company hopes to inspire the next generation of women in STEM by challenging them to think about how they will #makewhatsnext.